Industrial workers before the industrial revolution, usually learned how to manufacture a complete item, such as a wagon, or a rifle. They learned their trade from a master craftsman. They lived with this master craftsman in his household with his family while they learned their trade. For some trades, this period of apprenticeship lasted years. After the apprentice had fulfilled his contract to the master craftsman and had become good enough at his trade to set up in business for himself, he did so. Each worker could feel pride in what he made.
After the industrial revolution, workers did not learn how to manufacture a complete item, rather they learned a small part of the manufacturing process and repeated it over and over all day long. Each previous and subsequent step in the manufacturing process was done by a different person. Employers tried to break the steps down into such simple tasks that anyone they hired could perform one of them with very little training, consequently, very low wages were paid for this unskilled labor. Factory labor did not enstill pride, indeed it was often demeaning. The workers did not live under the supervision of the master, but on their own and so they went drinking and carousing more often and in a more public manner, sometimes makeing a nuisance of themselves.
The industrial revolution made the manufacture of labor-saving machinery for the farmer much cheaper so that more farmers could afford such machines. Now the farmers could do more work with fewer hired hands. The surpless hired hands had to go off to the city and find a job in a factory.
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